


Sweater Weather

by IBoatedHere



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Autumn, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Providence Rhode Island, Public Display of Affection, farmers market
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 07:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9311129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBoatedHere/pseuds/IBoatedHere
Summary: Jack and Bitty go to a Farmers Market.





	

Jack spots Bittle weaving through the crowd at the Farmer’s Market holding two large pumpkins.

Jack can hear his polite _pardon me’s_ more clearly as he gets closer and when he’s finally close enough he tips forward and drops one into Jack’s waiting arms.

“There you are, honey. Thought I lost you for a moment there. I was looking for a place to put one of these boys down so I could grab my phone and text you. Last I knew you were right behind me. Something catch your eye?”

Jack had seen a necklace at one of the craft booths that he thought his mother might like. It’s never too early to start buying Christmas presents.

He shrugs. “Something for my mom.”

Eric smiles, bright and warm and juggles the pumpkin as he starts to lose his grip. “That’s sweet. Did you get it?” Jack shakes his head and Bitty frowns just slightly. “Well we can always swing back around if you change your mind. Do you think you could run these to the truck for me? I know I should’ve waited until we were on our way out but they were just so perfect for carving I was sure someone would grab them before I got a chance.”

“You want to carve them?”

“Yeah. Maybe back at the Haus. Of course the other boys will be jealous we didn’t get one for them too and lord knows what the LAX bros will do to them if they see them….” he trails off and looks down with a sigh and Jack can imagine Shitty all the way up in Cambridge tensing up because he can somehow sense the idea of a lacrosse related disturbance. “Might be better to keep them at your place.”

Jack’s been thinking of _his place_ as _our place_ for quite some time now. Bitty only has a handful of months until graduation and Jack would like Bittle to know that he always has a home here in Providence.

“Why don’t we keep them here. It’s safer.”

“Why risk it,” Bitty says as he transfers the other pumpkin over. Jack cradles them in the crook of his arms. “You go run these out and I’ll get us some cider to help us warm up.”

“It’s not even that cold out, Bits.”

Bittle sticks both hands on his hips. “It’s chilly.” His breath forms a cloud in front of him as he talks and Jack nods and gives in. _It is chilly._

Bitty leans in and zips Jacks pullover fleece all the way up to his chin.

“Don’t want you catching a cold, Mr. Zimmermann.”

Bitty stands in front of him in a dark blue sweater and a matching hat with a soft smile and wind blown cheeks and all Jack wants to do is kiss him.

Jack has been out, publicly, for a few months.

They get to do this.

It would be soft and chaste. It probably wouldn’t even get them fined at the Haus.

He would pull away and Bitty’s face would red from something other than the wind.

Jack wants to kiss him right then the way he always wants to kiss him. Like a buzz shaking it’s way through his veins. Always bouncing through his thoughts.

He feels like he deserves it. The opportunity is owed to him. After years of denying himself this, of being denied this- he should be able to kiss his boyfriend in public.

He’s always surprised when Bitty’s the one that shies away from it. He turns his head at the last second or breaks the kiss first. It’s like he’s still worried about letting slip a secret that’s already been told.

“Jack.” Bittle startles him from his thoughts. “Get going so you can come back and help me carry all the apples I’m gonna need.”

Jack dutifully heads out to the parking lot and slides the pumpkins onto the bench seat in the back of the truck.

When he comes back he finds Bittle leaning against the side of one of the stands with two Styrofoam cups of cider in his hands. Steam curls up from the surface and Jack can feel the heat though the cup as Bitty hands it over. It feels nice. But having Bittle slide his free hand into his own feels ever better.

Bitty gets taken in at the first sight of farm fresh butter and chats with the woman behind the table about how it’s going to enhance the flavor in all his pies.

Bittle is practically vibrating with excitement by the time he’s reaching for his wallet and after he pays and thanks her he turns to Jack with a look of pure glee.

“I haven’t had fresh eggs in ages,” he says as Jack steps around him and does his best to block his boyfriend’s body from the wind. “I take what I can get from murder Stop & Shop and butter, Jack. She knows the cow this was made from. It has a name. I should have grabbed her card. Maybe she could ship it to the Haus for me.”

“We can come back, Bits. Or I can swing by and pick some up for you. You can stock both your fridges; the one at Samwell and the one here.”

“That would take a lot of butter. I can just imagine Tango now, _Bitty, what’s all the butter for?_ It’s for baking, honey, what else would it be for? He’s sweet but sometimes I wonder.”

Jack laughs into his cider while Bitty pulls him into the next booth.

They walk around like that, hand in hand and sipping cider with leaves crunching under their feet, pausing when Bitty finds something worth stopping for.

He finds goat cheese and pears and apples, the latter of which he takes his time with. He sorts through the pile of bright green Granny Smiths to find the best ones to bake with. Bright red McIntosh that he’ll make into apple sauce and Jack knows the whole apartment will smell like cinnamon and sugar for days. It’ll linger even after Bitty leaves to go back to Samwell.

He buys a third, small pumpkin. 

“This one’s for roasting. The others are for carving. I’m gonna make a pie out of this one.”

“I thought people got their pumpkin out of a can.”

“ _People do_. I do not. Not when I can help it.” He carefully drops the pumpkin into the reusable bags and Jack groans dramatically at the new weight. Bitty rolls his eyes and laughs and Jack is warm all over. “If you can’t handle that you’re going to have to spend even more time in the gym.”

They loop back around to the jewelry stand and Jack rests the bags on the ground at his feet so he can show Bitty the necklace. 

Jack holds it up and the silver catches the barely there light filtering in through the clouds. The quartz pendent seems to glow and it swings between them as Jack looks past it at Bittle. His eyes glow in the same way and Jack lays the necklace down. 

“Are you going to get it?” 

Jack’s only thinking of one thing as he reaches for Bittle. 

Jack leans down and claims that kiss he’s been waiting on. 

Bittle tenses and Jack lets his hand rest on his shoulder as he rests his forehead on Bittle’s. “It’s okay, Bits.”

Bittle’s eyes dart around. “People are gonna see.”

“So what?”

“People are going to see _you._ ”

“So what? I rarely get recognized anyways.” It’s true. There’s only been a handful of times where someone has come up to him. 

“When you look the way you do people just naturally look at you and then they’ll figure it out. They’ll know it’s you. And me.”

“I never notice anyone looking at me.” _I’m too busy looking at you._

“Well I notice it. They look and they’ll see us and someone will take a picture and it’ll end up somewhere and I just don’t want to make this any harder for you. You know someone will bring it up and it’s not-.” 

Jack kisses him again. He cuts him right off in the middle of the sentence and Bitty curls his hands into the front of his jacket and gets on his tiptoes to lean into the kiss. 

“You can’t keep doing that,” Bitty sighs when Jack leans back, much sooner than he would have liked. They are still in public. “You’re making it so much harder on yourself.”

“I love you,” Jack says and even though the words have left his lips more times than he can count Bitty still looks shyly down at his feet like he can’t believe it. Jack tips his head up with his finger beneath his chin. “I love you and everyone knows it. I’ve already told them. I don’t care if they see it. That was the point.”

“Yeah, you say that now….”

“I’m always going to say it. It’s you and me, Bits. Everything else is in the background.”

Bitty’s smile starts out slow. His bottom lip slips out from between his teeth as it grows. 

“Jack. Get that necklace for your mother and take me home.”

“Take you home? You mean back to the apartment?” 

“Of course the apartment. Where else?” 

Jack shakes his head and Bitty pulls him down to kiss his cheek. 

“I love you too, Jack.”

Jack can’t wait to take him home. 


End file.
